How much discount to expect when buying new carpet for a whole house?

LadyMuck

Hello, We need to buy carpet for our new house. We need to carpet (and underlay)3 bedrooms, stairs/landing and living room/dining room. We also need wooden floor/laminate for hall way.

The carpet we like is in Storeys. They have 'mega days' etc but obviously they just bump up the 'origional' price then discount it to give their 'mega sale' price. They've given us 20% off the marked price but because we're buying flooring inc underlay and all the little extras like grips etc for practically a whole house how much discount should be try and push for??

We have a toddler so we're just wanting cheap carpets to last a few years. The bedroom carpets are £6 psm. Stairs and living room is £10 psm.

Any info will be gratefully received, Thanks

TomsMom

We're in the same situation as we're nearing the end of a house renovation.

I don't know who Storeys is - independent? multiple?

I think you'll have more chance of a better discount with an independent. We are using an independent, we have used them before and they know us from those times, and we've already told them we're coming back to haggle on a large order .

Can you get the manufacturer's name and type of carpet and try and source it at an independent?

To be honest, as you're going for the more budget range I can't see them giving as much discount as if you bought a higher priced one.

From what I've read on here, your gripper can be bought over the 'net at a much cheaper price than the retailer will sell it to you for. Same for underlay. Try doing a search as I'm sure there are suggestions for websites.

underlay_guru

Hi,

TRADE SECRET- Storeys are a multiple, based mainly in the North of England, but are actually CARPETRIGHT in disguise! (Carpetright bought out Storey Carpets and Walter Wall Carpets a couple of years ago). The above is correct about these 'Mega' discounts: They basically bump up the price for a set period of time, then reduce it back again...there are virtually no genuine savings...

I would recommend a local independent carpet shop, and possibly buy your underlay and grippers online.: Carpet shops make MASSIVE MASSIVE profits on their underlays and grippers, so I would recommend buying these from an online store....... www.flooring-exposed.com www.tradeprice.com www.carpet-underlay-shop.co.uk have all been mentioned around here.

Regarding discounts on your carpets I would reject the following:

"WE CAN WAIVE THE DELIVERY CHARGE" - Reject this as a discount, after all, the fitters cannot fit it to your floor without delivering it!

"AN EXTRA 5-10%" - The multiples usually add extra to product prices, specifically in case customers are "cheeky" enough to ask for a discount!

"HALF PRICE ON GRIPPERS AND DOOR PLATES" - Forget it! At a guess, your doorplates will be around £5-6 fitted,and your gripper around £2 per metre. You can get doorplates online at £2.20 each, and gripper at as low as 14p per metre! If the online stores can sell them for these prices, imagine how much a multiple retailer is paying the manufacturers for them!

"FREE FITTING IF YOU BUY THE UNDERLAY" - No Chance! The fitting price is built into the price of the underlay...every time!

"I CAN OFFER A FURTHER X% IF YOU PUT DOWN A DEPOSIT TODAY" -Basically a pressure sales technique to get you to commit to buy, before you go shopping around. If they are that desperate for the business, they will knock of the discount another time anyway. Dont fall for this one!

"FREE FITTING IF YOU BUY THE SAME AMOUNT OF UNDERLAY AS CARPET" - Another little 'something for free' trick. The underlay will be overpriced anyway, so the fitting will be paid for, but in the majority of carpet fits you would actually need LESS underlay than actual carpet (This is beacuse most carpets are made either 4 or 5m wide and need to be in one piece. Underlay comes 1.37m wide, and can be sliced up and taped together....because you wont see it).....therefore, the fitters will bring the same amount of underlay to carpet and chuck the leftover underlay back in the van, leaving you none the wiser.

"GO COMPARE OUR PRICES ELSEWHERE-WE CANNOT BE BEATEN" - FALSE! Most of the multiples will rename all of their products, ensuring you are unable to shop around for them (Although they will be widely available in most other carpet shops). So if you find the same product cheaper elsewhere, their excuse will be "It hasn't got the same name, so its not the same product".....They know fine well it is the same product, but the name change is their handy "GET-OUT CLAUSE!"


...realistically, you could get your bill down by 40% if youre savvy about it. Mention you have seen the same products elsewhere, cheaper, and get quotes for them, along with samples. If they mess around...not same carpet etc etc. FORGET IT! Go down to your local independent retailer with your Storeys/Carpetright/Allied etc quote, and watch them LAUGH while they beat the price by ££££££'s guaranteed... I can give you reccomendations if you let me know which area of the UK you are!


Good luck

davemc78

When we were in the process of doing up our landing and stairs we went to carpetright for a quote, which was about 300 quid, plus fitting. We then went to a local carpet store and got the quote down to £150 plus £45 fitting, paid directly to the fitter.

The carpet was the same, it even had the same name on it, just called different colours in the showrooms. From that point on, I've always gone with the local independent stores for anything!

I bet they could use your business now as well...

Little_Chris

Underlay_Guru is spot on. Below is an earlier post in relation to CarpetRight but the same applies to other large multi nationals!

"Where you buy your carpet from is down to personal choice.

It's true that CarpetRight artificially increase their prices for 28 consecutive days (the legal requirement) and then discount them down again. I've seen carpets in CarpetRight not during a sale at £ 85.00 per square metre when the average High Street price was nearer £ 15.00 per square metre for the same carpet. Believe me you just don't make 60, 70 or 80% selling carpets!

If your're buying a well known brand of carpet then it's easy to compare prices between retailers but companies are wising up to this a changing the labels / names. John Lewis sell some really nice carpets, with John lewis labels and fancy names but they're simply re-branded carpets by Cormar, Brintons and Victoria Carpets.

Another trick is to advertise a low price per square metre but then charge the customer for more carpet than is supplied. This isn't so easy to do in a lounge or bedroom but when your'e having a few areas fitted or a hall, stairs landing, the extra quantity is easily disguised. Ask to see the 'cutting plan' or ask for a breakdown of quantity for each area. I regularly see customers who have been told that they require an extra 10 or 20m2 to the amount actually required. Remember it doesn't matter who cheap the m2 price is for the carpet, underlay, fitting etc - it's the final figure that matters.

Where ever you choose to by your carpet from (online, local retailer etc) it's important that you use a suitably qualified fitter. One of the problems with CarpetRight is that they use sub-contract fitters with little experience. If you use a local retailer ask how long the fitter has been with the company and whether they're employed or sub-contract. If you're buying online check out https://www.nicfltd.org.uk This is the website for the National Institute of Carpet Fitters and anyone listed has to meet and maintain a certain standard.

Finally wherever possible, pay for your new carpet on a credit card (even if you have the cash). You are far better protected (Consumer Credit Act) when paying on a credit card than you are when using debit card, cash or cheque.

Good look and happy shopping."

TomsMom

Well our local independent has been a big let down.

It's a small family business and we've used them before. We told the partner who came to measure that it was the whole house and looking for a good price on the carpets we chose - all good quality ones. We couldn't believe the price when it came through. He'd just lumped together the price of carpet, underlay, etc. for each individual room so we asked for a breakdown.

He's overpriced one carpet by £3 per sq.m. more than the price on the book, and two of the other three he overpriced by about 50p per sq.m., he only quoted one at the same price as the book. He originally said he would throw in the grippers and metals and he's charged for those. By working it out it looks as though he's charging about £6 per sq.m. for Cloud 9 underlay :eek: . Then he allowed a 5% discount but fitting is free!

Needless to say we wont be using him now, shame as his fitters are really good. We'll try to source the same carpet on the internet.

We used a different local shop for some vinyl as we had a credit note for there. The book price for the vinyl was £20.90 and we asked if it included a fitting charge. Without fitting it is £18.90. We checked the same vinyl on the website of the manufacturer (Armstrong/Rhinofloor) and it said retail price should be £14-£16 per sq.m. We went to order it this afternoon and told him of the price quoted on the manufacturer's site, shop owner was very annoyed and said he is going to ring Armstrong to complain but he is letting us have it at £14 :T .

Does anyone know how to work out how much carpet is needed for H/S/L as even though this was the most expensive at £33 per sq.m., the estimate was for over £2,000 and it's a very small hall, stairs to 1st floor, smallish landing then smaller staircase to loft.

underlay_guru

Measuring and planning a H/S/L is quite difficult and a mistake can be made easily....It is basically like doing a jigsaw, plus everything has to have the same pile direction, which makes it more difficult!

I would recommend you get a couple of quotes from carpet shops. Best leave this one to the pros!

ds1980

I'll give you my experience and i don't like paying for anything!!!

Went to independent and independent carpet fitter prices weren't bad but thought i could do better.

Whole house about 90 sq m in total.

Eventually decided to go for DIY route. Bought carpet off off internet and got fitter separate. Probably not much different but i was in charge of exactly what i wanted inc underlay etc so happy but doubt it would have been much different at independent.